Man dies in industrial incident (Updated 2 p.m.)

Published: Friday, September 27, 2013 at 08:57 AM.

A Kings Mountain man was killed in an industrial incident in upstate South Carolina late Thursday, according to authorities.

Kenneth Robert Clary, 24, died in the incident at ADS plant in Gaffney, said Dennis Fowler, coroner for Cherokee County, S.C.

“Mr. Clary was operating a picker lift and was approximately 30 feet off the ground pulling orders of shoes from shelves when his machine was struck by another lift about 8:50 p.m., causing it to topple, sending him to the concrete floor below,” Fowler said in a news release. “Mr. Clary suffered severe head trauma and died at the scene.”

Fowler said the driver of the second lift machine was not hurt.

He said it was the second similar incident his office has investigated at the plant in the past six years.

According to its website, ADS offers distribution, transportation, e-commerce and other services. It operates a fully automated facility with more than eight miles of conveyer systems, just off I-85 in Gaffney.

The coroner’s office has ordered an autopsy to aid in the incident investigation that is also being conducted by the South Carolina Occupational Safety Administration.

A Kings Mountain man was killed in an industrial incident in upstate South Carolina late Thursday, according to authorities.

Kenneth Robert Clary, 24, died in the incident at ADS plant in Gaffney, said Dennis Fowler, coroner for Cherokee County, S.C.

“Mr. Clary was operating a picker lift and was approximately 30 feet off the ground pulling orders of shoes from shelves when his machine was struck by another lift about 8:50 p.m., causing it to topple, sending him to the concrete floor below,” Fowler said in a news release. “Mr. Clary suffered severe head trauma and died at the scene.”

Fowler said the driver of the second lift machine was not hurt.

He said it was the second similar incident his office has investigated at the plant in the past six years.

According to its website, ADS offers distribution, transportation, e-commerce and other services. It operates a fully automated facility with more than eight miles of conveyer systems, just off I-85 in Gaffney.

The coroner’s office has ordered an autopsy to aid in the incident investigation that is also being conducted by the South Carolina Occupational Safety Administration.

An official with S.C. OSHA said the agency was reviewing the incident to determine if an investigation was needed.

“Generally, S.C. OSHA investigates all workplace accidents in its jurisdiction that result in death,” the spokeswoman said. “If we do investigate, investigations generally take about eight weeks to complete.”

The incident appears similar to an April 2, 2007 accident that killed 22-year-old Travis Clay Wood of Chesnee at the logistics company’s Gaffney plant.

According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Wood was tied to a lift extended more than 31 feet in the air pulling orders from shelves when another lift operator struck his machine, tipping it over.

Investigators originally cited 17 violations related to the incident, including 16 serious violations, according to an OSHA report. But that was reduced to five violations – four of which were serious – in the final report.

Automated Distribution Systems was fined $2,700 for the 2007 incident.